


The Worst Day in the History of Worst Days

by HeroMaggie



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: First Person, Gen, Internal chatter, Una's having a bad day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-10
Updated: 2015-01-10
Packaged: 2018-03-07 00:55:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3154760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeroMaggie/pseuds/HeroMaggie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Una Lavellan is having a terrible day. She woke up in prison. She's being screamed at by a woman holding a very large sword. She's got some weird magical shit on her hand. The sky has ripped open and demons are pouring out. It's an all around terrible day.</p>
<p>So what else is she to do but offer her aid?</p>
<p>A short story: How Una ended up agreeing to help the Inquisition.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Worst Day in the History of Worst Days

I was having a bad day. That may have been an understatement. I was having the worst day I could possibly imagine – and I was a mage; I could imagine many different types of bad days to have. But none of those imagined bad days had quite come close to this day. This day took the proverbial honey cake.

I had woken up in prison surrounded by armed humans, had been screamed at by an angry woman, discovered I had bodily walked out of the Fade, and had developed a chronic case of magical what’s-this-shit on my right hand. Terrible day all around.

The woman had finally introduced herself as Seeker Cassandra Pentaghast, the Right Hand of the Divine. Joining her was Leliana, the Left Hand of the Divine. It took both them to explain to me that the reason I was in chains was because the Divine was dead – killed in the magical blast that had obliterated not only the Temple of Sacred Ashes but all high ranking Chantry leaders, leaders of the Mage Circles, and leaders of the Templars. And as I was the only person found alive, I was to blame.

Now, I am guilty of a lot of things in life: fleeing Halla cleaning duty, stealing the odd honey cake when the Keeper wasn’t looking, drifting off to sleep during Hahren Elodin’s lessons, and that one time I inadvertently set fire to an aravel…but I had never caused massive explosions or killed an entire conclave. Nor had I ever physically walked in the Fade. But I didn’t want to call either of these women liars, so I fell back on abject terror and kept my lips closed.

After all, I was just an elf. One elf. And elves are always the ones who get blamed when anything goes wrong. Add on to that that I’m my clan’s First and a mage, well…silence could be golden. Sadly, my tongue had no plans on staying still and before I knew it I was babbling at Cassandra about how I didn’t do it and how could I help them solve this mess?

Creators. Why me?

Which was why we were trekking into the mountains to their Forward Camp. I had found a staff during our little trek – managing to talk Cassandra into letting me keep it. I think she had finally realized that she was only one woman – albeit one of the most efficient warriors I'd ever seen – and that I could use a little help in protecting myself. She was walking next to me now, her eyes straying to take me in as I settled into the loose-limbed amble elves in my clan favored for long trips.

“What is your name?” Her voice was surprisingly friendly, all things considered.

“Una Lavellan, First of Clan Lavellan.” I risked a glance at her. “I was here to observe the proceedings. It was of deep interest to my Keeper: the politics between your Chantry and the mages. She found great hope in the Divine’s willingness to talk instead of simply attack.”

“Your Keeper believed Most Holy was correct?” I had Cassandra’s whole attention.

I grimaced slightly, “Nothing is ever that simple with the Dalish. Especially when it pertains to human politics. We do not agree with your Chantry, nor your Circles. But…” I exhaled and rubbed my thumb against the slightly rough wood grain of my borrowed staff, “Magic is a gift and a responsibility. It is to be used for the Clan, to aid us in living. It used to permeate everything, the very air thrummed with it. It is a natural force – like air and light. To see people locked away for having such a gift…”

Cassandra’s lips twisted, “And so freedom is what you aspire to?”

“Careful education, Seeker. We do not support your views on mage slavery. There is nothing wrong with Circles of learning and templars who protect instead of oppress…well…the Dalish police our own. A Keeper goes abomination and the entire clan hunts them.” I shivered slightly at the thought, “The lure of demons is no less for us than it is for your own mages.”

“So you came to observe? What happened?” Her eyes pleaded with me. So many emotions shivered under her mask of control and for a moment, I felt her sorrow and grief reach out to me. Then her emotions were shoved back down and she presented her stoic face once again. “Can you tell me?”

“I…can’t.” I tried to remember, my memories slipping from my fingers like water pouring from my hand. My hand tightened around my staff, “My memories of that time are gone. I see only…darkness and then light. Feel fear and then nothing. I wish I could add more, remember more.”

She nodded, seemingly resigned, “Perhaps you will find help at the Forward Camp.”

I wondered at the help she hinted at, worried that it would come in the form of more chains.

***

  
The Forward Camp sat at the top of a rise, the path littered with broken rock and scorched vegetation. We moved up the path as quickly as possible, the sounds of battle raging above us. We crested the rise and stepped between two battered walls to find demons hounding a group of warriors. Screams rent the air and joined with the grunts and growls of the fighters.

I moved away from Cassandra then, my magic spiraling through me and launching at the demons. Lightning split the sky and forked, spearing two shades badgering a dwarf. The shades stiffened and screamed as their corporeal bodies were cooked from the inside out. Seeing an opening, the dwarf tumbled away and launched a volley of bolts at the jittering demons. Another howl and then they collapsed.

The rest of the fighting wrapped up pretty quickly after that, Cassandra moving to help an elf who had been backed into a corner by more shades. Then there was a lull, a chance for us all to catch our breath. In that moment of stillness I saw it, the pulsating tear from the Fade into our world. It swirled with malignancy and I felt drawn to it. In fact, I took several steps towards the flickering energies before I caught myself.

The feeling of a hand wrapping around my wrist and pulling me forward broke my inaction. It was the other elf, and he was muscling me towards the tear in reality. I tried to pull away but his hand tightened around my wrist and then thrust it up towards the rift. I felt my magic pulse, the mark on my hand answer like a heart-beat. The rift was a door. A small one, but still a door. A door that could be closed if I just pushed. Closed and locked. I pushed at the mark, like I pushed at my magic when I cast, and a stream of power rocketed from my hand and into the rift. The rift gave a rusty-hinge squeal and slammed shut.

I don’t think I could explain it any other way. One minute the door stood open and the next I had slammed it shut and locked it. Reality re-knit itself. In moments it was as if no rift had ever been there. I stood with my mouth gaping open before turning that gaping look of shock towards the elf, tugging my hand free of his grasp.

“What did you DO?” I breathed out in a slight panic. “How did you do that?”

“I did nothing. That was you, or rather the mark on your hand. It is as I thought, Seeker. The Mark can be used to close the rift.” The elf nodded at Cassandra and turned curious eyes to me. “I am pleased.”

“What he means is he’s glad you didn’t die since he was the one with his arse hanging out in the wind.” The dwarf had moved up, nodding to the elf and shooting Cassandra a look of mild annoyance. “I’m Varric Tethras, another of the Seeker’s prisoners. Nice to see you up and moving about, incredibly happy that you put a stop to the demons chomping on us.”

“Ah…How do you do?” My manners tried to assert themselves while my brain muddled at the problems of magical marks and rifts. The mark had to be some sort of matching magic, attuned to the music of the rifts and able to harmonize with them. I blinked and offered the dwarf a wry smile, “I am Una Lavellan, First of Clan Lavellan…though I suppose no more. And I’m glad I did whatever it is I just did to close that rift.”

Varric reached for and took my left hand, turning it to press a gallant kiss to the back. He grinned at me, “Glad to see you’re on board with helping.”

“Yes well…um. Are you with the Chantry then?” My mind was still stuck on the conundrum of the mark, the rift, the demons and all the burnt people I saw littered about. The crack of laughter had my head turning and my eyes meeting grey-blue ones. The elf, laughing at me.

“Not quite,” He offered me an amused smile. “I am Solas, if we are doing introductions.”

“Solas,” I found myself repeating, my eyes traveling across the battlefield and then back to him. “An apostate?”

Now his smile widened, pleasure filling his face, “Ah, you noticed. Yes.”

“Solas offered his aid with the rifts. He stayed with you while you were injured and studied the mark. He knows more than anybody about what is going on here.” Cassandra said, moving up to stand next to me.

“You stayed with me?” I watched him, unsure of his motivations.

“Cassandra is too kind. I am sure that if I had tried to leave I would have been imprisoned or worse. I am just pleased that you are awake and that my theories about the mark were correct. As to knowing anything about these rifts, well. I know much of the Fade but not of what happened here.” His eyes bore into mine and I sensed there was more to it, more than a simple desire to help, but felt that now – amidst the corpses of people and demons – wasn’t the most prudent time to delve deeper.

“Thank you, then. No matter why you stayed, I appreciate it.” I offered him a friendly smile before glancing around again. “This couldn’t have been the main rift.”

“No. It is further up. We must continue on to reach it.” Cassandra nodded at me. “Thank you for…for being so eager to help.”

I looked around me again. The destruction was nearly unimaginable and I had a feeling it would be worse the farther up we went. Creators, to leave now…to abandon them to the madness of the rifts - it was unconscionable. I would never be able to live with myself if didn’t try to help. This…this was bigger than Clan Lavellan. This was bigger than the Dalish. This would touch every corner of Thedas and threaten every life.

I looked down at my hand, at the energy pulsing in time to a much larger rift – a bigger gateway to the Fade. I could leave. I could run. Go home, tell the Keeper to move the clan as far away as possible and what…wait out the inevitable end to all this?

I looked up and caught the elf’s eye. He gave me a slight nod, his lips curling into a brief smile. He knew I was of two-minds. Then his eyes shifted down to the dwarf and a small curtain of sadness drew over his face. The dwarf would die. Cassandra would die. These soldiers would die. They would all die if I walked away.

I swallowed my fear and straightened, “There’s nothing to thank, Cassandra. This breach affects us all. Let’s go take a look at it and see. The sooner we close it, the sooner the demons will stop pouring out of the Fade.”

It was a bad day. The worst day in the history of worst days. But as I watched Cassandra herd Varric over towards the path leading us further up the mountain I couldn’t fault the day or the company. The sky had opened up, and the Creators had put me square in the middle of it all. My last thought before I joined Solas was that Fen’harel must be laughing.

Because only an old trickster god like him would find amusement in this much chaos.


End file.
